Trademark of Quality Bootlegs – Part One

I just completed an interview on my involvement with the bootleg record album company, Trademark of Quality. I thought it would be good to share here.

For those of you unfamiliar with the term “bootleg” as it applies to music, bootleg records were fan-produced LPs whose content came from live audience concert tapes (occasionally soundboard tapes), unreleased studio recordings or other rarities (radio and TV performances, obscure single B-sides, etc.). Bootlegs should be differentiated from pirate records (counterfeit productions of legitimate studio releases). A lot of pirating was financed by the Mafia and then distributed and sold through large department store chains. I’ve used the past tense in this paragraph because bootleg LPs are no longer produced; these days everything is on CD.

The bootleg LP heyday took place in the mid-1970s.

Q: When you first got into doing the artwork for TMOQ how old were you?

A: I was 24 years old.

Q: What were you doing artistically at the time ?

A: At that time I was taking just about any job that came my way. Most of my work then was in advertising. I worked on the first national advertising for Taco Bell, designing and illustrating posters to convince white people that Mexican food was clean and safe to eat. I also worked on the very first advertising and parts catalogues for Toyota in the United States. I was an assistant to Russ Manning on the Tarzan of the Apes Sunday and daily newspaper strips, and an assistant to Harvey Kurtzman and Willy Elder on “Little Annie Fanny” for Playboy. I was creating my own comics for Cycle-toons and Car-toons at this time, drawing the stories and features in a variety of art styles. I was also drawing underground comix — mostly covers.

Q: How did you get to meet Dub & Ken?

A: I met “Ken” at Record Paradise in Hollywood in 1973. That record shop was one of the few places in L. A. that carried import LPs. They also openly sold bootlegs. I had recently attended a great concert (Led Zeppelin, as I recall) and was looking forward to purchasing the bootleg LP of it that was sure to be produced. There it was in the “L” bin! I grabbed it and held it up.

“Oh man,” I said out loud, “this cover sucks. I wish someone would get me to do these covers.”

A guy tapped on my shoulder and whispered.

“You wanna do bootleg record covers?”

“Sure!”

“Selma and Las Palmas, this Friday night, eight o’clock. Be there.”

He paused.

“Alone.”

I agreed. That guy was “Ken”.

The intersection of Selma and Las Palmas at that time was one of the seedier Hollywood neighborhoods. Promptly at eight an old black 40’s coupe with smoked windows pulled up to the corner and stopped. The passenger window opened a crack. A paper sheet came out of it. I took the sheet and read it. It said, “Winter Tour” and had a list of Rolling Stones songs.

A voice inside the car said, “Next Friday, same time.”

The window rolled up.

Then the window rolled back down a tiny bit.

“Alone.”

I drove back to my apartment and began work on the cover. I re-titled it “All Meat Music” and designed the cover as a tribute to Robert Crumb’s Cheap Thrillscover for Big Brother & The Holding Company. Each song got a picture and each of the five Stones were featured in song illustrations.

The following Friday I was back at Selma and Las Palmas at the appointed time. Alone. The same coupe drove up and stopped. The passenger window cracked a bit. I put the cover in the provided slot, like mailing a letter. A fifty-dollar bill came out in response, as if the car was some kind of bizarre ATM machine. Then the coupe drove away.

Rolling Stones – Winter Tour (a.k.a. All Meat Music) came out within two weeks of the concert. The cover made it stand out and it sold very well. TMQ commissioned more covers.

Eventually, I gained the trust of the bootleggers and I worked with “Ken” and Dub face to face, though never knowing their real names. We saw each other regularly — usually, at Record Paradise. We were all friends with the shop’s owners, Roger and Ollie. It was a cool place to hang out.

Q: What were they like as individuals, bearing in mind the split between them after a few years was reportedly due to disagreements about quality (Dub) over quantity (Ken)….

A: I became closest to “Ken”. He kind of “collected” people. That is, he found the oddities of the human race and our species’ quirkier individuals fascinating and amusing. He made them a part of his pretty private social life. “Ken” taught me to be more tolerant and accepting of the stranger qualities of people. I don’t think I ever met a bigger Stones fan, either. I was amazed to discover that this huge music fan ONLY owned and collected records by the Rolling Stones — nothing else! He used to have a direct line to getting import UK singles. He had a guy buy and send him whatever was on the English charts. “Ken” ended up selling all those great records after he decided to only own Stones records. I got about a hundred of them. I think Greg Shaw bought the rest.

“Ken” was one of the most private people I’ve ever met. As close as we were (and we were pretty damn close), I didn’t find out he was married to his second wife until about two years after the fact. His first wife was the sister of Dub’s girlfriend. Both gals were incredibly gorgeous.

Dub saw himself as a composer and artist and was another huge music fan. His tastes were more diverse than that of “Ken”. Dub really liked a lot of the modern classical composers, like Edgard Varese. Dub had a pretty solid knowledge of classical music. He knew what was well performed and recorded and what was not. When CDs first came into existence, he sold them out of his girlfriend’s house (she was a top fashion designer). About 85% of my initial CD collection came from Dub.

Both guys were sharp businessmen and pretty tight with their dough.

Q: Can you remember where in California they were based back then?

A: The Los Angeles area.

Q: Did you get the choice of which covers you did at all, or were you given the artist, album name, song titles etc. up front ?

A: I was given everything up front. I never passed on doing a cover. We shared similar tastes, so I was never asked to do a cover for a group I didn’t like. Since I was only being paid $50 per cover I was given complete freedom to do whatever I wanted for the cover. I often changed to title of the LP to go with the art, which sometimes drove Dub nuts.

At first, after All Meat Music, I used to knock them out because I was only being paid fifty bucks per cover. Then, I asked myself, “If you’re not doing them for the money, then why are you doing them?”

I took a completely new attitude and approach and decided that, regardless of what I was being paid, I was going to do my best work. I also decided to hold Trademark of Quality to their name, and continually push for higher and higher quality bootleg LPs and packaging.

Q: And on a similar theme, were you given complete artistic freedom on each cover or did they ever brief you on what they wanted ?

A: They never told me what to do. The cover content and style was always up to me, as long as I included all the pertinent information like band name and track listing.

Q: Was it the first paid (art) work you did?

A: I got my first paying art job while I was in high school. I drew political cartoons for the Conejo Vally News-Chronicle, the local newspaper in Thousand Oaks. My first national exposure came when I did the covers and illustrations to the first four issues of the horror pulp magazine Coven 13. The first issue was in 1968, while I was in my second year at art school. I attended the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts; we referred to the school by its old name: the Chouinard Art Institute). The Illustration Department had a great policy. If you got any real jobs in the outside world, you could substitute them in lieu of your homework. By my last year and a half nearly everything I was turning in was professional work. It made the transition from Academia to the real world absolutely seamless.

Q: Can you remember what they used to pay for a boot cover? (As Monty Python said…. “If it’s not a personal question” !!!)…

A: I got $50 per bootleg cover, bumped up to $100 each for the color covers (I pushed TMOQ to start printing the front covers in color). Crappy pay even back then but it was big time fun. Plus, my rent was only about $90 per month during that period.

Q: Was it just Dub & Ken that you knew from that world or did you also get to meet Kurt Gleimser (your drawing of Mick Jagger was used on the K&S version of ‘Burning At The Hollywood Paladium’), John Wizardo, Andrea Waters, the Rubber Dubber guy or any of the other bootleg producers from that era?

A: I met a few of the other bootleggers, usually at the Hollywood Record Swap Meet in the Capitol Records parking lot. For the most part they were pretty sleazy and seemed untrustworthy. This intuitive feeling was borne out when the other bootleggers started stealing TMOQ’s recordings and putting them out on their own labels. Meeting them made me glad I was working with “Ken” and Dub. I don’t think I ever met the Rubber Dubber — but I bought his records. I don’t think I ever heard of Kurt.

Q: Did anyone else approach you to do work for them?

I think the other bootleggers were too intimidated by “Ken” and Dub to ask me to do covers for them. It was probably perceived of as a “turf” thing.

To Be Continued…

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18 Responses to “Trademark of Quality Bootlegs – Part One”

Man I love the weird shady ness of that story. It must have been rather weird doing those transactions at first. One of my favorite stout moments was at wonder fest a few years back when I got you to sign one of my beatles bootlegs you did. You pulled out the record and informed me that it was a bootleg of a bootleg. For some reason I thought that was hilarious

I was a bootleg seller in my teen years, in Sydney, Australia – I absolutely loved the Stout covers – and still own some. We got shut down by a Supreme Court summons – even tho the law was very grey then and we could maybe have beaten it – we were up against a consortium of all the major companies. Anyway, I went on to a design and screen-printing career which at times was clearly influenced by the Stout work – see “John Foy posters 1999” at YouTube. I also went on to running my own legitimate record company – which I believe some of the TMQ folk did too – Rhino? Can someone confirm this for me..? There may be a thread where those who start off boot, end up legit. I’ve heard Rumours of a Stout compendium book of all the TMQ artwork – Yes Please!

Thanks Bill – to answer your question, not that I know of, but there were a few interesting black & white tv rock shows of the era that shot great live footage – try those names with GTK as searches. GTK ( Get To Know ) was sort of like a tv version of early Rolling Stone… Greg McCainish of Skyhooks also shot a great short doc on Sharpie/skinhead culture in Melbourne in the sixties – great Australian music of the day as soundtrack – prob also out there on YouTube or similar. Thanks again for the influences Bill – I do indeed hope you do a music related book with all your TMQ stuff and more. Kind regards, John Foy.

Bill, are you forgetting that back in the early 70’s a few years before his Rhino record store or label, Head Rhino Richard Foos rented a space at the back of Apollo Electronics on the 300 block of Colorado ave in Santa Monica (at the south end of the Santa Monica mall and a few blocks east of the Santa Monica pier) where he retailed and wholesaled bootleg LPs.
I would be very surprised if he hadn’t also got some pressed.

@Tommy: That was well before I met Richard. I met Harold Bronson first, long before I met Richard. As far as I can recall, Richard and I have never discussed bootlegs.

BTW, I can’t get into details, but there would be no Alice Cooper if it weren’t for the sales of the Stones bootleg LIVE’R Than You’ll Ever Be….

Harold was a rock scribe for his UCLA student newspaper. I used to accompany him on interviews. When photography wasn’t allowed, I would draw the rock stars while they were being interviewed — nobody objected to that. Harold also invited this starving artist (me) to the record launch extravaganzas of the 1970s where there always was good food galore.

>>BTW, I can’t get into details, but there would be no Alice Cooper if it weren’t for the sales of the Stones bootleg LIVE’R Than You’ll Ever Be….

I’m sure that’s an interesting story but of course you mean there would be no Alice Cooper boot LPs and not no Alice Cooper since Alice Cooper’s first gig was
March 16, 1968 at Earl Warren Showgrounds and the Liver concert didn’t take place until a year and a half later in Oakland on Nov 9, 1969.

The first Alice Cooper boot LP was in 1972 TMOQ’s Parricidal Slumbers, right?

>>Harold was a rock scribe for his UCLA student newspaper. I used to accompany him on interviews. When photography wasn’t allowed, I would draw the rock stars while they were being interviewed — nobody objected to that. Harold also invited this starving artist (me) to the record launch extravaganzas of the 1970s where there always was good food galore.

Yeah I knew he was a Rock writer for the UCLA bruin newspaper.
Didn’t know you accompanied him and drew those who he interviewed, that’s pretty neat. Did some of your drawings get printed alongside his articles/interviews?
Weird that sometimes photos weren’t allowed.
Do you still have any of those old newspapers?

Here’s a link to one of Harold’s interviews published in the Daily Bruin. I know Harold was a big British Invasion fan.
In fact in 1984 Rhino published a book of his, Rock explosion: The British invasion in photos, 1962-1967

It took years for Alice to succeed. Alice’s LPs did not begin to really sell until their third LP, Love It to Death with its hit “I’m Eighteen”. Up until that point the band was being supported (in part, if not completely) by sales of LIVE’R LPs.

Yes, my drawings were often printed with the interviews (I think I’ve got a few clippings. I’m not sure where…). This was during a period when band managers got very controlling when it came to their bands’ images in photographs.

Harold and met in a case of mistaken identity over our love for The Yardbirds. I had confused him with the comic book fan and critic Fred Bronson — but it all worked out.

Incredible article and thanks for all your great covers over the years. I used to visit Record Paradise all the time and my friend and I have stacks of records from there. I do have one question that’s just so eating at me, can you say who recorded All Meat Music, was that Ken or Dub or Mike Millard or….? Just dying to know as not only was I at that show at the age of 11, I bought the boot a few months later, it remains a favorite!

Thanks for that. I too hung out a Record Paradise from 1969 to 1975-6. I bought a ton boots there. Beatles, Stones, Alice, Roxy Music, King Crimson, Dylan, Donovan,
and so many more. I still own quite a few. Roger & Ollie were greatest. Brought back so many memories, thanks again.

I’m delighted to find this interview! I bought my first bootleg record in 1977 and I’ve never looked back. At least 80% of my listening are live recordings from bootleg or stock from trading in the old days.
I’ve been illustrating since I was little, when I used to ruin all my mother’s books by drawing all over the blank pages in the beginning and end, and I’ve always loved your work. I have a modest collection of the old TMQ boots with your covers (Tales/Who, Golden Eggs, More G.E., Going to California, Spicy Beatles Songs, etc.) , and treasure them. Even though I love your own style, I’m always impressed by your ability to mimic other artists you enjoy. Your Arthur Rackham-inspired (spelling?) “More Golden Eggs” cover is priceless! I also went out of my way to grab your later Zeppelin, “Burn Like a Candle”, from LA 6.25.72. I actually made a bunch of people I was driving home from a funeral wait while I stopped at a record store to find out if they had it, and they did! I now have it in better quality and running at the correct speed, but I’ll never part with the original.
I made the choice between developing my guitar or art skills a long time ago, and went with music. I’ve never regretted my choice, but every time I look at your work I’m at once wishful that I hadn’t developed my artwork and also thinking that I might not ever get as good as you were when you were still a young man. At 53, I enjoy a very good reputation as a musician and play a lot of different styles and play in three different bands including Custard Pie, a Rhode Island based Led Zeppelin tribute band. We often quote those old TMQ bootlegs.
Sorry to prattle on. Thanks Bill!!

Oh, I forgot,
If you ever release a book that features your complete bootleg artwork, I’ll buy that in a heartbeat!!!!
Your bootleg work reminds me of a time when there was still a lot of mystery, where Going To California took me to a place where I could be transported back in time, listening to a tremendous performance that could be enjoyed over and over again that very few people knew about. I’m not wild about all of the TMQ Zeppelin boots, but at the very least they all sound good (though there sometimes speed issues), as do all of the other artists I’ve heard on that label.
Years ago, I had a reputation around the world for remastering and enhancing bootleg recordings, and a couple of them were appropriated and released on bootlegs. One in Japan actually asked my permission which I was surprised at, and was released in a deluxe box set w/ t-shirt for $300 and I received my own copy. I was delighted that I contributed to the bootleg industry that I have found so much enjoyment from.